Open Yourself up like a book

I have to say I’m on a Hemingway binge. One of my post-cancer goals is to get rid of clutter. So I went through my shelves of books and got rid of many books I’ve read, or never got to read and thought I would read. I replaced them with great buys on eBay with Library of America books and decided to read through the American masters who really shaped me. I finally read “Across The River and Into The Trees” and “Islands In The Stream,” which aren’t Hem’s best, but there were still some gems in there (Although, in Islands the dialogue with the children is ridiculous–they all talk like Hemingway instead of kids.) And I plan to take on another I’ve never read “To Have and Have Not.” Still I find it fun and very relaxing to end the day reading his prose, and thought, it’s been a long time since I’ve read “The Old Man and The Sea.” and “Farewell to Arms,” which I read when I was an English major. What’s great about having been knocked around by life is to return to these works and be in no hurry to read through them, but to savor the soul of their creative narrative, and brush stroke those note back into fresh perceptions and reflections of life. I think that’s why I’ve never been big on science fiction, or mysteries, I don’t want to escape this world, I want to be among words that live, pulsate, and radiate within it. For example, cracking through Jame’s Agee’s “A Death In The Family,” and I drift back to the loss of my mom and how the day after she died, I was awakened by her voice saying, “Fritzie, help your father with the phone calls.” Where does that spirit come from?I’ve always been drawn to it at the expense of earning a more practical living, and believe me I’ve paid an uncomfortable price among the victories, but I’ve always believed in the struggle to attain.

So in this new year I have, I carry my heroes, scramble for a few bucks, but return to the stage and continue. Sometimes you can open yourself up like a book and be a great read.